Performance lose with using DDR266 memory on nforce2 chipset MB

[dwchan69]

In an idea case, I would be getting DDR 333 memory with an AMD 2800+ 333FSB with the latest nforce 2 mother board (Asus). However, since all 1.0G memory memory that is currently available are only DDR266 (where 512Meg DDR333 is easily available). How much performance will you lose when if I only be able to run DDR266 memory with a nforce2 chipset system?

Would it help if I combine the DDR266 with the 266FSB version of the AMD 2800 XP?

dwc

 

[Lord Evermore]

On a cost/performance/frequency basis, you'll get better performance with matched FSB and memory speeds. A 333MHz Athlon with dual-channel 266MHz memory will probably still outperformance a 266/266 setup, but there may be some cases where it doesn't, due to the timing delays from using asychronous bus speeds. Also if you end up using a combination of modules where you only have single-channel operation, you will be getting lesser performance because the memory bus won't have the bandwidth for the FSB; if you have dual channel, then the combined bandwidth should mitigate the lower memory speeds.

Why do you need 1GB memory modules? A total of 1GB should be plenty for most uses.

 

[mechBgon]

I wasn't aware that there was a 266MHz-based 2800+.

I see Mushkin does have PC2700 1Gb DIMMs. You should probably read their remarks about the performance hit incurred when using 1Gb modules on nForce2, however: click here

running 1GB unbuffered DIMMs, the performance dropped by approximately 50% which may be caused by the specific addressing scheme of the chipset.

 

[AtomicDude512]

Originally posted by: mechBgon
I wasn't aware that there was a 266MHz-based 2800+

There isnt.